


Scary Stories

by Dardrea



Series: Fluffy Hiatus Sunday Ficlets [7]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Rumbelle - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hiatus Sunday Fluff 2014 - 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-09 22:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3266843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dardrea/pseuds/Dardrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Week 7 of the Hiatus Sunday Fluff. Belle enjoys scary things, like reading scary stories and watching scary movies, but sometimes her imagination runs away with her. Set mostly in the dark castle but ends in Storybrooke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scary Stories

_The dark castle_

Belle tried very hard to be quiet. She’d left her slippers behind specifically because she’d thought the slight scrape against the stone might give her away faster than her bare feet but she had to admit, she regretted that now. It was very cold in only her nightgown and robe and she was starting to fear her chattering teeth might give her away faster than her slippers would have.

The halls of the dark castle were…well, dark. She’d turned down all the lamps and blown out all the candles when she’d gone to bed several hours earlier. Rumpelstiltskin didn’t seem to need them to navigate by and she hadn’t thought she’d be trying to find her way through the castle again before morning.

She’d brought a candle from her room of course. Cold was one thing, but she wouldn’t risk taking a wrong turn in this labyrinth her master called a home and falling down a flight of stairs to break her neck.

But the candle wasn’t quite all she’d hoped it would be. Instead of a source of warm, golden light guiding her way, it was only a tiny flicker in the stygian darkness of the vast, empty halls and stairwells—and just why did her master need such high ceilings and such large passages anyway? He was hardly bigger than she was.

That thought led to another, however: what beast or monster might actually require such large passages? She’d seen many strange things in her master’s castle. It wouldn’t be surprising if he had some pet or guard ‘dog’ that he might let loose to prowl the corridors by night.

It struck her more than ever how little light her candle actually provided. How it might act more like a beacon to something else that stalked the shadows, than it was a guide to her.

She didn’t hear anything. She didn’t. That _snap!_ was just some piece of wood settling in the cool night air, or a fallen leaf stirred by the wind into striking a window or…or an insect. Just a tiny thing with many legs and a shiny black carapace and sharp, biting teeth. The walls were certainly _not_ full of such things, waiting for darkness to fall so they could crawl out of their cracks and crevices to feast.

She rubbed her arms and lifted her feet higher as she stepped, wishing she’d worn boots. Boots would have kept her feet warm.

—and that low, ominous rumble—why, that was just thunder, she told herself sternly, hurrying now.

It was so quiet in the castle she could often hear thunder from the mountains around them. It wasn’t… _obviously_ , it wasn’t any sort of creature that made that sound. Nothing furred or scaled, with claws like daggers and rows of gleaming teeth. Nothing…nothing unnatural that watched her with rheumy, discolored eyes and dripped burning ichors on the stones below. Certainly it wasn’t anything that could creep along the dark walls or ceilings, out of the weak glow of her dim little candle, hovering over her even now, claws slowly extending—

She _knew_ it was only a drop of wax that fell from her candle and briefly scalded the top of her foot.

But she broke into a run anyway.

The door to the great hall wasn’t far and she cast all thoughts of quiet aside in the primal urge to flee whatever lurked with her in the darkness, scrabbling at the door and throwing herself into the room. She’d thought she might sneak into her master’s presence, take up a small corner by the fire and read quietly to herself for a while before he noticed and shooed her back off to her lonely room.

Instead she took a shuddering breath, panting as she closed the door to the great hall with a thud, leaning her head against the ornate wood carvings.

“Trouble sleeping, dearie?”

She sighed with relief that he hadn’t gone to bed or moved on to his work room, but then she squared her shoulders and tried to shake off the adrenalin of her frantic flight through the hallways. She turned to her master with her best attempt at a cheerful smile.

“Yes! Yes that’s exactly—that’s it exactly.” She walked across the hall towards him. He’d left most of the lamps off in the hall as well, but a fire burned in the fireplace casting far more light than her little candle, so she left it on the long table in the center of the room and continued to the shadowy corner where Rumpelstiltskin sat at his spinning wheel.

“Did you have a nightmare?” he asked absently, his attention still on his spinning.

She cleared her throat. “No. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just that it’s unusual even for you to dash about as if the hounds of hell are at your heels. I didn’t think I’d managed to instill such fear in you yet. M’curious what finally did the trick.”

She huffed in annoyance and glared at him, though he didn’t acknowledge it, his face serene as it only was when he was spinning, and his hands steady at their work.

She rolled her eyes and bounced a little on her toes. “I was dusting _your_ Hall of Monsters today. I think all those stuffed things and paintings and sculptures are enough to give any normal person nightmares.”

“Good thing you’re anything but normal, then. My guess is…you were reading scary stories before bedtime— _again_.”

She glared at the ceiling this time, and tapped one foot. He tittered, smirking to himself.

“For your information, Rumpelstiltskin, it was thinking about having to dust that abomination in the northwest corner of the Hall of Monsters that had me running in here.” She couldn’t keep herself from shuddering and casting a sudden, nervous glance around the room.

“Sadly, that was the last of its kind,” he told her. “And it only comes to life to hunt on the first Saturday of each month. Since today’s only Tuesday you’re quite safe.”

 She had to laugh, and felt a little more of her fear abate.

“I’ll keep that in mind. I guess I did a run through your halls for no reason, then.”

He hummed.

“I thought…” Here she felt more uncertain, changing her plan since he’d already noticed her anyway. “I thought maybe I could keep you company for a while, while you spin. I could read to you?” She pulled the book out of the pocket of her robe and held it up.

His eyes flicked to the book for a moment, then refocused on it sharply. He cocked his head. “Did you bring the book of ghost stories that were keeping you up in the first place?”

She bit her lip and shrugged. “I wanted to finish it. But I didn’t think I could keep reading it by myself.”

He blinked and the unwilling smile that quirked his lips drew out an answering smile from her. To her disappointment, he looked away quickly. She quite liked his expressions when she startled him out of his mask.

He nodded his chin towards the fire. “Read then.”

“Out loud?” she asked.

“If you like.”

She sat down where she was standing, and shifted around until she could rest her back against his leg.

The spinning stopped. She opened her book to the ribbon she’d used to mark her place.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, sounding both startled and vaguely scandalized.

She bit her lip to keep from laughing and twisted her head to look up at him. “I’ll have to talk too loud if I sit over by the fire. My voice will give out.”— _no bad thing_ , he muttered and she pretended not to hear—“It’ll be so much easier if I sit here. I’ll need a light though.”

He worked his mouth and swallowed. She wondered what he would do. Would he order her to go sit by the fire? Would he banish her back to her room in a puff smoke?

He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. A lamp appeared, shaded so the light was focused on an area not much larger than her open book, leaving him still in shadows behind her. She understood and smiled gently at him.

“Thank you,” she said.

His fingers twitched and he soon had the wheel spinning again. He nodded, his gaze slipping away.

She began reading. “Although all the kingdom knew that the castle had long been abandoned…”

~~~

She didn’t know when she’d fallen asleep. She only knew that she was much warmer now. She sighed happily, feeling cradled, rocked even, like she’d fallen asleep in a carriage. She stretched her fingers and tangled them in something soft and cool. She curled herself around whatever she lay against and inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent. It smelled like—

“Rumpelstiltskin?”

“Ah. Ahem. Just putting you to bed, dearie. Lots of cleaning to do tomorrow. You fell asleep in the great hall.”

“Mmm,” she purred. He sounded unusually flustered even for him. She brushed her lips against his neck. His skin there was soft; it didn’t feel scaly at all.

Her eyes fluttered open to watch his throat work as he swallowed. They were in her room.

“Here we are, little maid. Let go now.”

She didn’t like that the sheets he laid her down amongst were cold and she grunted a little in protest, but they seemed to warm as soon as he pulled the blankets up over her, tucking them around her as no one had done since she’d been a very young girl.

Her eyes were already closing but she pouted a little. “I can’t sleep with you tonight? What if I get scared again?”

The hand that had been arranging her hair carefully on the pillow so it didn’t get pinned beneath her shoulders froze. She managed to blink up at him and burst into laughter. “Just kidding.” She giggled some more and turned onto her side, tugging the warm blankets up to her ear. “You should have seen your face…” she said, trailing off to sleep.

~~~

_30 years later, Storybrooke, Maine_

Belle fumbled for her keys in the yellow glow of the porch light, quickly letting herself into the house and waving to Emma and Ruby as she closed the door.

Fortunately—and thoughtfully—Rumpel had left a lamp on in the living room so she wasn’t entering into darkness either. She hung up her jacket and scarf and took off her high-heeled boots.

She poised on the stairs, on the highest from which she could still reach the switch for the lamp. She took a deep breath and hit the switch, already scampering up towards the second floor before the glowing filament entirely dimmed.

It wasn’t a small house but it still wasn’t any great distance between the top of the stairwell and the door to the master bedroom either, though tonight it felt far longer than it needed to be. He’d left the door cracked and she closed it behind her, sparing one glance at the still, shadowy form on the bed before moving quickly to the bathroom where she could turn the light on without fear of disturbing him.

She took her time getting ready for bed: taking off her makeup, washing her face, moisturizing, brushing her teeth, brushing out her hair. She felt foolish. But not foolish enough to turn the light off before she opened the bathroom door, staring at the long, long stretch of hardwood between the bathroom and the bed.

She chuckled at herself, knowing how he’d tease her if he was awake.

She turned off the light and sprinted the few steps separating her from her goal, almost leaping onto the mattress from a little distance so nothing hiding underneath could have a chance to grab at her feet. She sighed as she slid under the covers and next to Rumpel.

He yawned and stretched, reaching out for her and though she hadn’t ‘wanted’ to wake him she was glad when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He pressed a sleepy kiss to her temple and tucked his warm feet under her cold ones. “Hey. Have a nice girls’ night out?” he asked, nuzzling his face against her hair and already halfway back to sleep.

“Mmhmm. We ended up going to see a movie after all. Mary Margaret had to cancel so we didn’t have to be back in time for her to nurse Neal.”

“That’s nice,” he murmured. “What’d you see?”

“Oh, that new one about the possessed doll. You know, the one Ruby kept talking about when we were at the diner the other day.”

He chuckled. “Really? I’m surprised you didn’t call me to escort you up from the car when they dropped you off.”

“Rumpel!” she pinched his side, earning another sleepy laugh muffled against her hair. “I am not that bad!”

“Hmmm,” he mumbled agreeably, his breath evening out in sleep.

She stuck her tongue out in his direction, but then snuggled a little more closely to him as she drifted off to sleep as well.


End file.
